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POPSBarack Obama is Mr Darcy --Maureen Dowd Dowd reports that some women won't vote for Obama because he's skinny, some because he seems haughty. That's no sillier than voting for him because he resembles Jane Austen's most popular hero, Mr Darcy. I'm not wild about the train of thought that says women vote based on fictional heroes. However, it may be an uncomfortable truth, and not only about women. Much of voter opinion is based on looks, style, and media hype--not content. I do give Dowd credit for making an unusual analogy. The "Pride & Prejudice" title fits the current politics in some ways, and Dowd correctly points out that the success of the Austen novel rests of changing the views of *both* sides.
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POPSSalon on Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" A perceptive article. It's interesting that Miller mentions the placeholder theory, which holds that writing a flat character lets the reader insert him or herself into the role. That's an old theory and dated in some ways, but it's possible that teenagers do at times insert themselves into stories, imagining themselves as central characters.
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POPS3 Books on Male Sexuality... and Splooge --Chronicle, 9/07 Reviewer Camille Paglia has been called a "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist feminist," and one of the world's top 100 intellectuals. She describes three very different books on male sexuality, with thoughtful criticisms of each. I quoted from "Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man's Most Precious Fluid" by Lisa Jean Moore, simply because it's a funny passage. The other two books are Murat Aydemir's "Images of Bliss: Ejaculation, Masculinity, Meaning" and Angus McLaren's "Impotence: A Cultural History".
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POPS"Girly" book covers discourage boys--Times, 9/07 The article highlights a couple of books with plots that should appeal to boys. It's a pity they're given bright pink covers. Surely that increases boys' resistance to reading, and especially their resistance to reading books with female protagonists. (For more on that, see: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1494932,00.html and: http://www.readforpleasure.com/2007/09/why-women-read-more-than-men-or-not.html
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POPSPatron Removes Kids' Sex Book From Library--PW, 9/07 Karkos could have challenged the book through a formal process within the library and its board--and thus allowed the community to participate in deciding the fate of the book. Instead, she took it into her own hands to decide for everyone what is moral and what books should be available. By holding every copy of the book, she prevents anyone else from reading it and forming their own opinions. Regardless of the content of the book, Karkos' actions fly in the face of civil society and its crucial community aspects.
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POPSEast African Views on Sci Fi, 9/07 I'm intrigued with the developing world's view of western sci fi. Our technology-centric culture, and our western mythologies, must sound foreign in more ways than one. (Note that this article is actually from Kenya, one of the more developed African nations, with strong universities and reasonable internet access.)
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POPSInternational Literacy Day--8 Sept. 2007 The following authors are working with UNESCO’s "Writers for Literacy" initiative. You can download their essays in the "Alphabet of Hope" anthology linked above. Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Philippe Claudel, Paulo Coelho, Philippe Delerm, Fatou Diome, Chahdortt Djavann, Nadine Gordimer, Amitav Gosh, Marc Levy, Alberto Manguel, Anna Moi, Scott Momaday, Toni Morrison, Erik Orsenna, Gisèle Pineau, El Tayeb Salih, Francisco Jose Sionil, Wole Soyinka, Amy Tan, Miklos Vamos, Abdourahman A. Waberi, Wei Wei, Banana Yoshimoto.
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POPSHigh school reading lists updating rapidly--8/07 Christian Science Monitor One quote in the article disturbed me. A college student said "Summer reading is a good thing if and only if there's a context for it. I don't like the idea of just handing us a list. If you say, 'Read these books,' tell us why." Context is a great thing. But there's a lot of value in simply reading for pleasure, reading for its own sake, reading for exposure to different ideas and styles.
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POPSWhat Book Are You? OK, so it may not be totally accurate. You get what you pay for. And it's fun reading the interpretations of the books' "personalities". Found by the Classical Bookworm: http://arb0rv1tae.typepad.com/bookworm/
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POPSKids Shouldn't Read Fiction -NYTimes Jul 2007 Bull! (a) Reading fiction has benefits other than information. (b) Kids get plenty of practice reading for information on the internet. (c) Studies show that if kids don't do enjoyable reading in school, they stop reading as soon as they're out of school.
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POPSHarry Potter doesn't increase kids' reading -NYTimes Jul 2007 Kids read if their parents read. And most adults don't read. I found some horrifying statistics on how little people read--and how reading dwindles as people age. Adults actually read less than kids do. Great example, huh? http://www.readforpleasure.com/2007/01/how-much-do-we-read.html
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POPSDeath of the Short Story, Buzz Balls & Hype, Jun 2007 Henkin makes a great point: short stories are perfect for the short attention span. So why aren't they selling? I often try a new author by reading her short stories. I know that an author's short stories may be very different from a novel, as the different lengths require such different approaches. But often reading the short stories is an easy intro to someone's style.
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POPSChicago Sun: New focus on women authors Other major changes under Ms. Reed: "I do more graphic novel, food, and music books because I realize these appeal to different audiences. I also added poetry and politics to the types of books we review. I experimented with themed sections. My main thrust has been in highlighting local authors and mainstream authors who come to town. We do a lot more interviews with authors now and I encourage our reviewers to take an attitude. I want our section to be entertaining and engaging even if readers don't go out and buy all the books we review.... I encourage our reviewers to take strong points of views. We are a tabloid so we feel we're entitled to have some fun. I've insisted that reviewers' taglines be somewhat clever and funny. I've found that full-time freelancers often can't break out of the mold and the volleying of plot developments. I want my reviewers to write essays about books, not plot points."
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